Category: Georgia

Smaller government fans may be in for a historic period. Due to severe budget crises, state governments throughout the U.S. are “cutting budgets” i.e. shrinking in size. Lack of money is forcing legislators, regardless of party affiliation, to shrink government spending. In many cases states can not just raise taxes and fees enough to close the gaps.

Georgia, for example, this week, announced its revenue had shrank for the 15th consecutive month. Revenue for February 2010 is a whopping 41.3% below February 2007. January was down 27.3% from 2007. Georgia legislators are faced with figuring out how to run the state on less money. They will be forced to shrink the size of government.

Georgia residents pay the 16th-highest state-local tax burden in the country according to the Tax Foundation.

“There’s just no way to put a pretty face on it,” Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle said in an interview with The Associated Press. “We’ve got to cut thisbudget and we have to live within our means.” (Emphasis added)

He writes, “So how must state government adjust to meet the new challenges? Already governors are grappling with this issue. Almost every state has an internal process underway to examine how to cut costs, and several states have created formal task forces or commissions to look at cost- savings and streamlining. Most efforts start by exploring the traditional tools of budget cutting: targeted and across-the-board program cuts, reductions to local aid, layoffs, benefit cuts, furloughs, and salary reductions. In today’s environment, however, states quickly find that these options do not shift the cost curve sufficiently, and they must look at actions that change the way government does business.

Additional steps that are being considered or undertaken today include:

Selling state assets (such as surplus equipment and state office buildings);

Consolidating data centers and IT functions;

Coordinating purchases across agencies;

Consolidating state real estate management into one entity and conducting a review of
real estate holdings and leasing arrangement; and

Reorganizing and combining agencies.”

Profound Changes in State Government

Thomasian writes, “The current fiscal crisis has spawned a new round of state performance reviews, many of which will yield profound changes in the services state government delivers. This period of government downsizing and streamlining may be a protracted one, ending only when state budget health is restored. The delicate balance will be maintaining those services that help the state prosper, while eliminating those that produce the least value.” (Emphasis added)

The challenge is that most of our legislators are reluctant to cut government programs. Segments of the voting community also want their favored programs protected. We may see a historic shrinking of state government if our legislators and voters reset budgets as circumstances dictate.

Those in favor of smaller government will be tested and have an opportunity to influence this process.

This “reset” of state government will affect all areas of lifestyle including education, jobs and safety. The big question yet to be answered is: “Will people be happier with a smaller state government that taxes less and provides less services?”

Americas Health Rankings also does a great job in providing statistics for each of the states. Smoking trends by State have some interesting aspects not quickly seen by observing the data.

The Best and Worst States 2009 Smokers by State map highlights high smoking and low smoking states. It is listed below:

State Smoking Population Map

From the map it is readily apparent that the mid west and southern states have the strongest affinity for smoking.

The Best State for Non-Smokers, i.e. lowest smoking population, is Utah. Only 9.3% of the Utah population smokes. Additional Top States for Non-Smokers are California, New Jersey, Maryland and Hawaii.

The Best State for Smokers, i.e. the highest smoking population, is West Virginia with 26.5% of its population smokers. Over one in four people over 18 smoke in West Virginia. Additional Top States for Smokers are Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri and Oklahoma. Nevada had the highest smoking population in 1990 at 35.7% according to Americas Health. Nevada’s smoking population has since declined to 22.1%, a dramatic decline.

The entire 2009 list of Smokers by State is published below.

The populations of tobacco producing states are above average smokers. It seems logical. If a state produces lots of tobacco, its population is more likely to smoke. The chart of Top Producing Tobacco States supports this contention. North Carolina has the most tobacco acreage by far and ranks as the 14th highest smoking state. Kentucky, the 2nd largest tobacco producer, ranks 3 in the nation for highest per cent of its population being smokers. Virginia and Connecticut appear to be outliers. Virginia is the third largest producer yet its population ranks 40th in the nation for smoking. Connecticut is the 9th largest producer of tobacco yet its smoking population is 44th or ranked 7th lowest state for smokers. All the other Top Tobacco Producing States have above average smoking populations.

The Top Ten Tobacco Producing States are listed below along with their Smoker Rank.

Top Ten Tobacco Producing States

List of Smoking Population by State

If you consider smoking or non-smoking an important aspect of lifestyle, this info may help you find a state that fits your needs. It might help you determine your Best State to Live.

Union employment in the U.S. continued to shrink this past year. Nationwide union participation stands at 12.3% which is a slight decline from 2008.

The BLS 2009 Annual Union Affiliation by Statesurvey was recently published. It has brought increased attention to the union movement. Union policy will further be in the spotlight this week as the Senate wrestles with the nomination of Craig Becker, a clearly pro-union candidate, to the National Labor Review Board. See GOP’s Senate Gain Clouds Prospect of Obama’s Labor Board Nominee. In view of this upcoming debate, we thought it would be helpful to take a deeper look at state unionization and employment.Let’s take a look at state unionization.

New York is the most unionized state in the nation with 27.2% of its population working for a union. More than 1 in four workers are represented by a union in New York. Hawaii at 24.3% is the second most unionized state at 24.3%, followed by Alaska at 23.6%. Washington, Michigan, and New Jersey are heavily unionized states with about 20% union participation rates.

The least unionized state is North Carolina at 4.4%. Only one in 23 workers in North Carolina are represented by a union, a sharp difference as compared to New York. Additional states with low union participation rates are Arkansas at 5.0%, Virginia at 5.4%, South Carolina at 5.4% and Georgia at 5.9%

Twenty seven states had decreased union participation in 2009 as compared with 2008. States with low union participation rates generally became less so in 2009 and those states with union growth were primarily already highly unionized. There are 22 states with right to work laws in the U.S. Right to work laws generally do not require employees to pay fees or join a union even if voted in.

A look at union participation and unemployment shows states with high union participation rates are closely associated with higher unemployment.

The five Worst States for Employment in 2009 were Michigan, Rhode Island, Nevada, California and South Carolina. All but South Carolina are highly unionized states. The Worst States for Employment in 2009 generally were highly unionized states.

Worst States for Employment and Union Participation

The Best States for Employment in 2009 were North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa, Oklahoma and Kansas. All but Iowa have unionparticipation rates below the U.S. average and would be classified asstates with low unionization. If you are looking for a job, look at states with low unionization. They tend to have less unemployment. See Best and Worst States for Jobs: Will Jobs Improve in 2010 for the rankings of all states by employment. The list of Best States for Employment and Union Participation follows:

Best States for Employment and Union Participation

The list of Unionism by State follows:

Unionism by State

Union membership has been in a long term decline since 1983 when BLS first started measuring it in a consistent way. Union participation was 20.1% of the working population in 1983. It is now approximately 40% lower at 12.3%. For the first time in 2009, the majority of union members now work for the government and not for private, for profit entities. These state workers are on average paid significantly more than private industry. Making it easier for government workers to unionize will only push labor costs higher and cost the taxpayers more. Political leaders should be trying to keep these costs in check. (The average federal worker’s pay is $71,206 as compared to $40,331 in the private sector and is growing above inflation rates) The Obama administration’s labor policy approach creates a conflict with its responsibilities to protect the taxpayer. Increased unionization will increase our cost of government. If the Obama administration is serious about job creation and deficit control, it may want to reconsider this approach. Unions and job creation generally do not have a positive correlation. Watch the news this week as it relates to Craig Becker. It will have implications for jobs and deficits.

It has been one year since President Obama took office and announced a stimulus bill that was to improve jobs.The data suggests that the job market continued to deteriorate this past year. Unemployment is up to 10% from 7.4%. Job Openings are down 5.48%

Job Openings, as measured on careerbuilder.com, have not improved from one year ago. Nationwide, job openings at January 31, 2010 were 5.48% lower than January 29, 2009. Total job openings stand at 222,189 as compared to 235,059 last year, a decrease of 12,870. 37 States have lower job openings as compared to last year.

The Best State for Job Openings is Indiana as measured by growth. Indiana had the largest gain in job openings, 887, up 17.4% from a year ago. Best States for Jobs also were Kentucky, Ohio and Tennessee. Florida and Ohio were the best large states for job openings. They were the only 2 states of the Top Ten Employment States to show increases in openings. 13 States had increases in job openings from a year ago.

The Worst State for Jobs was California. It has 3,667 less job openings from a year ago, a decrease of 14.18%. California also has the fourth worst employment rate in the nation. Unemployment in California is now at 12.4%, up 3.7% from a year ago. California is struggling on many fronts and an increasing jobless population will not help it turn around. For more on California see California Jobs Shrinking

Additional Worst States for Jobs are Texas, Illinois,Massachusetts and Arizona. They each had large job opening losses and double digit declines in percentage terms.

Another measure of job openings, the Conference Board’s Help Wanted On-Line Data Series is also indicating year over year decreases in job openings. The Conference Board Data for 2009 annual average job openings stands at 3,357,000, 1.1million below the 4,481,000 annual average for 2008. More importantly their average job opening number for 2009 is 2.4 million below the 2007 average job opening number. These are not good numbers. On an encouraging note,the Conference Board reported positive improvement in job openings in New York, Washington, Connecticut, Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, Delaware and New Jersey.

All 50 states saw their unemployment rates increase in 2009. See Unemployment by State 2009 for the entire 2009 list and unemployment changes from a year ago. Job openings must increase significantly nationwide if unemployment is to improve to acceptable levels. It is going to take some time for this to occur.

Does Increased Spending on Higher Education lead to Better State University Rankings?

I thought you would find the rankings of state higher education spending and state university rankings useful. Intuitively one would believe that states that spend more would have better ranked universities. Higher State spending does not mean it is a Best State for Education. Lower State spending does not mean it is a Worst State for Education. A closer look is warranted.

Utah spends the most of its state budget on higher education at 15.5%. Its University of Utah is ranked 126 according to U.S. News 2009 College Ratings. New York spends the least of all states on higher education with only 5.4% of its budget yet its highest rated public school SUNY-Binghamton is ranked higher than Utah at 80. North Dakota is a close second in spending at 15.4% and its university’s state ranking in education is Tier III. Tier III means it is ranked in the 50-75% of all national universities i.e. below average. 7 of the 10 lowest spending states on higher education have higher university rankings than high spending North Dakota. North Dakota does not get much bang for its buck.
High Spending States on Higher Education and University Rankings

NorthCarolina is third highest ranked state on higher education spending at 14.2% and has the highest rated public university of the high spending states with a rank of 28. This appears to be a positive spend to school rank association. Yet neighboring Georgia with a spend of 7.6% has its Georgia Institute of Technology rated 35. Georgia Institute of Technology is higher than every high spend state ranking other than North Carolina.

Alaska is the second lowest higher education spending ranked state at 6.1% and appears to get what it pays for. Its school is rated a bottom 25% Tier IV by U.S. News. Florida is the third lowest state in spend at 6.3% and appears to get very good returns with the University of Florida rated 47, higher than every high spend state other than North Carolina.
States with the lowest spending on higher education are primarily in the Northeast. 7 of the lowest 10 states are from the Northeast. They are, in addition to New York, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Pennsylvania and Maine. Yet 4 of the states, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Connecticut have higher ranked schools than every high spend state other than North Carolina.
Low Spending States on Higher Education and University Rankings

A simple thesis that more spending on education leads to better results continues to be elusive. Be wary of political leaders who say that they are managing your education system better by spending more money. Check the results.

With unemployment rising and economic stress increasing, the trust we have in our neighbors and community is of increasing concern. We want to live in a Safe States as they are Best States to Live. The poll asked people if they believed a lost wallet with $200 in would be returned. Nationwide 70% of people believe that their wallet would be returned with money still in the wallet. Large States according to Gallup are generally viewed as less trustworthy. People in the Southern half of the country do not trust their neighbors as much as people in the North. See Gallup’s map below.

The Best States for Neighbor Trust are:

The Worst States for Neighbor Trust are:

People in the South do not trust their neighbors as much as the North according to Gallup. Chart courtesy of Gallup.

When picking your place to live consider your neighbors. Safe States are Best States to Retire and are Top States to Live

The College Board released today the 2009 SAT Scores by State. They strongly encourage people to look at the data stand alone yet it seems everyone wants to see the SAT Rankings by State. We picked them up from a variety of news sources and present them to you with caution. Some states have low participation rates and arguably can tilt the field. We will follow up with some analysis in a future post. Also see our post Does Increased Spending on Higher Education lead to Better State University Rankings?Top SAT State Scores include Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Missouri. These States primarily have their students take the ACT test so their numbers may not be representative of the entire state.

The Worst States for SAT Scores include Maine, Hawaii, South Carolina, Georgia and New York. DC is also very low.
Here is the ranking of SAT Scores by State List:

2009 State Sat Scores

Rate

Reading

Math

Writing

Total

1

Iowa

3%

610

615

588

1813

2

Wisconsin

5%

594

608

582

1784

3

Minnesota

7%

595

609

578

1782

4

Missouri

5%

595

600

584

1779

5

Illinois

6%

588

604

583

1775

6

Michigan

5%

584

603

575

1762

7

South Dakota

3%

589

600

569

1758

8

Nebraska

4%

587

594

572

1753

9

North Dakota

3%

590

593

566

1749

10

Kansas

7%

581

589

564

1734

11

Kentucky

7%

573

573

561

1707

12

Oklahoma

5%

575

571

557

1703

13

Tennessee

10%

571

565

565

1701

14

Arkansas

5%

572

572

556

1700

15

Colorado

20%

568

575

555

1698

16

Wyoming

5%

567

568

550

1685

17

Mississippi

4%

567

554

559

1680

18

Louisiana

7%

563

558

555

1676

19

Alabama

7%

557

552

549

1658

20

Utah

6%

559

558

540

1657

21

New Mexico

11%

553

546

534

1633

22

Ohio

22%

537

546

523

1606

23

Montana

22%

541

542

519

1602

24

Idaho

18%

541

540

520

1601

25

Washington

53%

524

531

507

1563

26

New Hampshire

75%

523

523

510

1557

27

Massachusetts

84%

514

526

510

1551

28

Oregon

52%

523

525

499

1548

29

Vermont

64%

518

518

506

1543

30

Connecticut

83%

509

513

512

1535

31

Arizona

26%

516

521

497

1534

32

Alaska

46%

520

516

492

1528

33

Virginia

68%

511

512

498

1522

34

California

49%

500

513

498

1511

35

West Virginia

18%

511

501

499

1511

36

New Jersey

76%

496

513

496

1506

37

Maryland

69%

500

502

495

1498

38

Rhode Island

66%

498

496

494

1489

39

North Carolina

63%

495

511

480

1487

40

Nevada

42%

501

505

479

1485

41

Indiana

63%

496

507

480

1484

42

Delaware

71%

495

498

484

1478

43

Pennsylvania

71%

493

501

483

1478

44

Florida

59%

497

498

480

1476

45

Texas

51%

486

506

475

1468

46

New York

85%

485

502

478

1466

47

Georgia

71%

490

491

479

1461

48

South Carolina

67%

486

496

470

1453

49

Hawaii

58%

479

502

469

1451

50

Maine

90%

468

467

455

1391

51

DC

79%

466

451

461

1379

All Students

46%

501

515

493

1509

Source: College Board and various news services Rate: Student Population Rate as reported by www.collegeboard.com

We had reported in January that increasingly people were no longer choosing Florida as the Best State to Retire. The Internal Revenue Service reported that more than 50,000 fewer tax returns were filed in Florida since 2005. See Florida Losing Population for more on the IRS filings and January report.

The director of the University of Florida’s Bureau of Economic and Business Research Stan Smith said the population dropped by 58,000 people between 2008 and 2009. This is the first decline since large numbers ofmilitary personnel left the state in 1946 after World War II.

Florida has become less attractive to many people on fixed incomes due to its expensive cost of housing particularly in South Florida and high real estate taxes and property insurance.

Tennessee, Georgia, North and South Carolina have become attractive choices as Best States to Retire. Florida will not turn around quickly as many people on fixed incomes are still looking elsewhere. Tennessee has the lowest cost of living in the nation. See List of Cost of Living by State

If you are looking for a Best Place to Live or Retire, Florida has lost some mojo.

The Tax Foundation recently released their 2009 Tax Freedom Day Study. It measures how many days the average worker must work to pay taxes. There is a wide disparity among states. The tax burden you bear can significantly impact your quality of life.

The Best State for Tax Freedom is Alaska where it takes 82 days almost 25% of the year just to pay taxes. Louisiana, Mississippi, South Dakota, North Dakota and West Virginia are also rated Best States for Tax Freedom. If you are not retired, these states would be considered as candidates for Best States to Work.

The Worst State for Tax Freedom is Connecticut where it takes 120 days or until April 30 to pay taxes. If you live in Connecticut 1/3 of your time every year goes to pay taxes to the Federal, State and Local governments. That is almost 50% more days than Alaska. New Jersey, New York, California and Maryland are also rated Worst States for Tax Freedom.

According to the Tax Foundation study, five major categories of tax dominate the tax burden. Individual income taxes, both federal and state, require 38 days’ work. Payroll taxes take another 27 days’ work. Sales and excise taxes, mostly state and local, take 15 days to pay off. Corporate income taxes take 6 days, and property taxes take 12. Americans will log 4 more days to pay other miscellaneous taxes, most notably including motor vehicle license taxes and severance taxes, and about 1 day for estate taxes.

What state you live in is very important in determining your lifestyle as higher cost of living states tend to have higher tax burdens. Lower disposable income is the result. Many states are also increasing many taxes due to economic conditions which will increase tax burdens. Noteworthy examples are the proposed increases in New York and California that will make these heavily burdened states more undesirable to live. If you are not retired, New York and California would have to be considered as 2 of the Worst States to Work.

The February 2009 State Unemployment numbers were released this past week and they were not pretty. Every state in the U.S. saw its unemployment rate increase.

Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) also released March Unemployment, along with Feb state data, and the nationwide unemployment rate increased again to 8.5% nationwide. It was 8.1% in February.

Seven States had unemployment above 10% in February. Michigan was the Worst State for Jobs with a whopping 12% unemployment number. South Carolina, Oregon, North Carolina, California Rhode Island and Nevada also qualify as Worst States for Employment as the 6 other states with unemployment above 10% .

The Best State for Jobs based on a low 3.9% unemployment is Wyoming. 4 other states qualify as Best States forEmployment with rates still below 5%. They are: Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota and Iowa.

Some of the state year on year changes are quite large. Unemployment increased by over 100% from last year in Hawaii and Oregon for example. Of the large states, Texas is holding up the best with unemployment of only 6.2% in February which was below the U.S. Feb average of 8.1%.

State data is released with a one month lag so expect March state unemployment to get even worse as unemployment increased nationwide in March by .4%.